Rent: wants vs choices

We'll have to agree on one main "given": Kelowna is one of the top destinations for 'well off' hockey players, retired CEOs, others with money, snowbird retirees with "another place down south" to spend the winter and the like. Also, many here are simply folks that got out of school 30-40 years ago, started families, bought homes and promised to pay (mortgages for 25 years or more) and did so before Kelowna became such a desirable and unaffordable (for many) destination.

Some are newer to the area and still find a way to get a home (often with a mortgage helper suite) and make their payments, seemingly forever.  Often with two jobs and no kids.

Those type of folks can afford and do live here. That is what drives the housing market here in the valley.

Then there are others who want to live here that don't fall into the first group. Some have jobs that don't pay all that well and other circumstances that don't place them in the group above. They don't own their own homes and have to try and rely on rentals. Some have 4 kids and can't afford the rent that local owners are demanding.

I know a lot of folks that would like to live in Palm Springs but can't afford it. A friend, who is looking to relocate to the valley, has been looking at homes here. A sampling online of what they're looking at shows the mortgage calculation off to the side, it says $4,513 per month! That of course is with a minimal down payment, but still, that is the reality here.

There is a 3/2 townhouse in Rutland for sale at $299K. The same type of bank calculation shows a 25 yr. mortgage on that place, with 5% down ($15K), runs $ 1,415/mo. Lets face it, there is nothing going to be cheaper than that.

It’s not up to me to say, but if that fellow is living in his in-laws suite, the in-laws could consider giving the "kids" the $15K 'down' and renting their suite out to a tenant for say $750/mo. (making their $15K back in 2 years or less), thereby getting the family of 6 into at least something. There is going to have to be some creative thinking done to get anything like an “affordable” home for 6 of any kind here in the Valley, now and in the future.  

Any meaningful government intervention to get people affordable accommodation in the Okanagan Valley is unlikely.  After all, folks could move to somewhere like Armstrong or OK Falls and have their choice of accommodation there  for half or less of what homes and rentals are going for here in Kelowna.

But, up to an hour drive "commuting to work?” Well, every one I know that's had a home since the 1970's (nearly 100% of them drove it, just that way for years, while paying to live 'out of town’).

It’s mainly about choices. Good luck to them.

Alan Sanderson